After getting Lyme disease last year, Ryan Cassata is thankful to be back on the road.
The Los Angeles singer-songwriter felt isolated because of having a chronic illness and recalled experiencing that same feeling as a trans youth years ago.
“I’m excited to be feeling well enough to be back out on the road,” said Cassata, who’s still fighting the illness, but is stable enough to be touring.
“The sense of isolation that the disease has caused me reminds me of how I felt as a trans teenager: isolated and feeling like I was the only one going through it in the world. There’s also a lack of understanding that happens with both chronic illness and being trans.”
Cassata also explores those themes on his latest album, Greetings From Echo Park. He wrote most of the album while battling Lyme disease and includes 14 cathartic tracks that reflect on queer identity, trauma, uncertainty, and survival.
“So if you’re queer/trans, chronically ill, disabled, or experiencing feeling different, or being othered in any way, you may relate to the lyrics on this record,” he said.
“There are many songs that also reflect the queer experience, like “QUEER american DREAM.” I wrote that song about the state of the nation and the quest for trans equality. I sing a lot about how hard it feels right now to be trans.”
The Americana band embraces the growth and wisdom that comes from personal and professional challenges on It’s Alright.
“A lot of it was the decompression of our days and things that were weighing on us,” said Ashleigh Glass-Cooper, Blockhouse Valley’s vocalist, about the Metro Detroit band’s latest album.
“It also was thoughts we were having and things that were racing through our minds that we were able to capture in those times and hold onto for moments where we could make something better out of them.”
Glass-Cooper traded those thoughts and feelings with husband, musical partner, and mandolinist-guitarist Cody Cooper during their daily commutes home from work.
“It wasn’t that we sat down and said, ‘Let’s write songs about this,’” she said. “We tend to talk about [things] on our commutes, and our brains get a chance to decompress in ways that we don’t always set time apart for otherwise.”
Those conversations laid the groundwork for It’s Alright, which features eight tracks filled with soulful vocals, clever lyrics, and infectious instrumentation.
“We gave them a structure, a context, a musical home that we could potentially share with other people,” Glass-Cooper said. “And we think [the songs] are really relatable because we don’t want to dwell on all of the negativity. We don’t want to give it more power through what we’ve done, but we do want to provide that release.”
To learn more, I spoke with Glass-Cooper and Cooper about the album, its themes, and the creative process behind it.
While the pop-rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist hails from New York City, she’s ecstatic about attending the University of Michigan this fall as a freshman to study music.
So much in fact that Orensteen has written a song called “Michigan,” which pays homage to the school and serves as the aspirational opener from her debut album, AmericanGirl.
“This song turned into a way that I could express my love for Michigan even though I had never been there [before] or had never seen it,” she said.
“I got in contact with the University of Michigan about using my song for their social media. I also sent in the song with my application, and I didn’t even tell my parents I was applying. And then I got in, and they said, ‘What?’”
Despite that surprise, Orensteen learned of her acceptance to U-M in February and has started planning for the fall.
She shares that sentiment in “Michigan” alongside hopeful acoustic guitar and electric guitar while singing: “I’ve never been to Michigan, but I’ve heard it’s nice / You’re going away, going to college, gonna start a new life / You’ll remember me / When you see my name in lights / And you’ll say, ‘Wow, she was right.’”
“I’ve always loved the University of Michigan, and I wrote this in one of my supplemental essays when I applied there,” said Orensteen, who will graduate from New York City’s Professional Children’s School in June.
“I never told my parents or anybody that I loved the University of Michigan, but I’ve always followed the school and their football team. I never thought I’d go there or get into the school.”
Orensteen’s “Michigan” is one of 13 coming-of-age tracks featured onAmericanGirl, which includes introspective lyrics about life and love and spirited pop-rock and pop-punk instrumentation.
I recently spoke with Orensteen about her background and influences, her latest album and songs, her creative process for the album, her producers and collaborators, and her plans for the summer.
Eric Ripper follows his instincts on “Look for a Sign.” Photo – Savannah Brown
Eric Ripper prefers to leave the past behind and embrace the road ahead.
The Nashville, Tennessee singer-songwriter explores changing life’s course on “Drive,” the steadfast opener from his latest album, Look for a Sign!
“I’ve just realized that a lot of my life has been from moving around, following a dream, and giving into that motivation,” said Ripper, who hails from Northville, Michigan.
“I was sick of sitting around claiming I was doing something and not following through. In this case, it was moving to Nashville.”
Backed by determined electric guitar, bass, and drums, he sings, “Well, I’m not here for a long time / And I ain’t standing still / Well, I’m just here for a good ride / And this is how I steer.”
“It just means I’m not on this earth for a while, and I need to move around and follow this direction,” he said. “I guess you could say it was the final motivation for my move to Nashville.”
Not only does “Drive” reflect Ripper’s recent motivation, but it also includes a lyric that inspired the album’s title: “It’s hard to choose the route for you / Look for a sign.”
“Drive” was the second-to-last song we worked on. After hearing it over and over, we decided that it had to be the opening track,” said Ripper, who relocated to Nashville in 2023.
“As a fast, upbeat song, it introduces the theme to everything [that’s on the album], and the repeated lyric only made sense as the [album’s] title.”
Eric Ripper performs with Jonny Neville at The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor last fall. Photo – Lance McQuesten of McQuesten Media
Eric Ripper doesn’t see life as a glass that’s half-empty or half-full.
Instead, the Ferndale pop-rock singer-songwriter sees it as brimming with changing priorities on his candid new single, “Fill My Glass,” out March 17.
“I wrote ‘Fill My Glass’ about five or six years ago, so it’s an older song,” Ripper said. “I didn’t remake this one for my Story Notes album, but I’ve been thinking for a while that this one could be played a lot faster. This song is also on my Empty Place EP.”
Determined acoustic guitar, fiery electric guitar, hefty bass, thumping drums and crashing cymbals prompt sharing struggles of self-doubt and seeking validation from a confidant.
Ripper sings, “I think I’ve had enough / I just wanna give up / Will you tell me that I’m wrong / So I can think differently about myself.”
“I wrote this song about a girl I was seeing at the time,” he said. “I interpret the lyrics as the character speaking to a bartender, addressing his problems and wanting the reassurance that he’s not wrong about what he’s thinking and feeling. He wants to think differently about himself in general.”
After confiding in the bartender, the character shifts to confronting his partner and their lack of commitment toward the end of “Fill My Glass.”
Ripper sings, “So what you say / You gonna give me an input / We’ve been here for an hour / And I’m feeling quite sour / Said ‘I’ve had enough of the bullshit’/ ‘Are you ready for commitment?’”
“He’s tired, and he’s had enough of all of this. He doesn’t want to believe that they have given up though. He needs the reassurance that he’s wrong so he can think differently about the two of them,” Ripper said.
“‘Fill My Glass’ is saying how he needs validation from others on how to feel. He’s sticking up for himself to an extent, but he still needs the reassurance from others when he should truly be doing that on his own.”
“We found the right tones we needed and mapped out the song to slowly build up and have the second chorus be really heavy-hitting. He had the idea of the sounds backing away and coming back at the intro of the second chorus, a bit influenced by Travis Barker’s production style,” he said.
“We knew we needed a killer solo to end the song, and I asked Jonny if he could come in and lay something down, and he nailed it. The rest of the song is my guitar playing.”
All At Once’s Pablo Gonzalez, Adrian Garth and Eduardo Guajardo. Photo – Diego Carrales at Voce Studio
All At Once proudly takes the helm while sailing toward a sea of new possibilities.
Throughout their latest uplifting single, “Sailors,” the Monterrey, Nuevo León pop-punk trio of Adrian Garth (vocals, guitar), Eduardo Guajardo (guitar) and Pablo Gonzalez (drums) energetically chronicles encountering rough waters en route to uncovering a buried musical treasure outside Mexico.
“The chorus says, ‘We are the sailors who don’t leave this ship.’ Well, the ship is the band and our dreams. I know for every band it’s super difficult to make it and have success, but I find it extremely more difficult to be in another country and try to make it in a scene that’s not in your country or in your hometown,” said Garth, who wrote “Sailors” in February and co-produced it with Mauricio Colunga.
“We were talking about that right before we got on the plane to LA for the music video for ‘Break Me.’ We were like, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter if it’s difficult, and it’s not going to get easier anytime soon, but it doesn’t matter because we want what we want, and we’re gonna get it no matter what.”
All At Once’s admirable determination surges throughout “Sailors” as reverby, crunchy electric guitars swirl amid echoey background vocals, exuberant bass, humming synths and pounding electronic drums. About 20 seconds into the track, the trio erupts into a Blink 182-esque, sea-faring fury as driving electric guitars, rhythmic bass and thumping drums bounce listeners from one sonic wave to another.
While moving full-speed ahead, Garth enthusiastically sings akin to Owl City, “The warmest lights are here right now/We’re shining bright up in the sky/Together we can touch the clouds/We’ll sail this boat until the end/We are the captains once again/Roller-coasting our way.”
“The ‘captains’ part is about us handling ourselves and not letting anyone else interfere with us, but I really like the lyric that says ‘Roller-coasting our way.’ I love roller coasters, and this was something that took me a long time to figure out – everything you do no matter what it is has its ups and downs, so that’s what I meant about it. It’s gonna be good, it’s gonna be sad, and I’m gonna be angry sometimes, and I’m gonna be super happy, but I’m going to be crying sometimes,” Garth said.
All At Once beautifully captures their optimistic outlook through a “Sailors” companion lyric video, which features an 18th century-inspired ship coasting along a pink turbulent ocean in a pastel neon dreamscape.
“We decided to include the lyrics on the screen with these really cool movements from side to side that mimic a ship on the water. My bandmates really liked it, and we couldn’t wait to release it,” said Garth, who created the lyric video.
Nate Erickson has released three singles since launching his 310AM solo project last fall.
310AM shows every relationship needs a serious reality check.
The Ypsilanti indie rock singer-songwriter and guitarist confronts this personal challenge in his latest kinetic, revelatory single, “Real to Reel,” which dropped last week via all streaming platforms.
While only two minutes long, “Real to Reel” hauntingly unites the frantic, glistening instrumentation of Two Door Cinema Club with the lush, lingering harmonies of Local Natives.
Vivacious, swift guitars, rolling drums and spirited bass propel 310AM, aka Nate Erickson, toward an overdue conversation, as he emotionally reflects, “The loose ends and disarray/Relay both fear and regret/You ask if you can stay/We both know the answer you’ll get.”
“To me, this song was a way to reflect on how separation can affect a relationship. ‘Real to Reel’ is one of those songs that just came out of nowhere. All the guitar parts and melodies came to me real quickly in a way that I find impossible to recreate intentionally. I hope people find it as cathartic to listen to as it was for me to write,” said Erickson, who wrote, recorded and mixed the track himself.
“Real to Reel” single artwork
Erickson also vividly depicts the succinct “Real to Reel” struggle through a refreshing Marian Obando animated video, which chronicles the relational scuffles of Millennials living in the city. Frustrated couples and friends navigate urban life and ride a double-decker bus in search of answers.
“I found her work through a band called Dead Rituals, and she did a music video for their song ‘Closer’ that I really enjoyed. I’ve wanted to do an animated video for a while, and some of my favorite music videos are animated – ‘Paranoid Android’ by Radiohead and ‘Open Passageways’ by All Them Witches. I reached out to Marian to see if she would be interested in working together and loved the ideas she had for the project,” he said.
As a newly-timed solo project, Erickson has released a trio of striking 310AM singles since November, including the dreamy, atmospheric guitar-driven track, “Paint Me Red,” and the escalating, divisionary anthem, “Expectations of a Failed Equation.”
In August, Erickson departed the indie rock trio After Hours Radio, which released two EPs, built a strong regional following and launched a well-respected, do-it-yourself (DIY) basement venue, The Late Station, in Ypsilanti.
Through 310AM, Erickson seamlessly combines Midwest indie rock with propulsive pop-punk emo sensibilities and seeks inspiration from Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance and Jimmy Eat World. His growing catalog of tracks also creates a sense of nostalgia for the emo-alt glory days of the early-2000s.
With a modern outlook on a nostalgic sound, Erickson continues to write and record new 310AM tracks and collaborate on demos with Mark Bosch, vocalist-guitarist for the Ann Arbor indie rock quartet Stop Watch.
“I have rough demos for four or five 310AM songs now that I would love to put together into a new EP this year. I feel that my writing is getting stronger with each track, and this next EP will take the 310AM sound in a really cool direction. Hopefully, I can use this time of isolation to make some progress on those,” Erickson said.
The Atlanta pop-punk singer-songwriter explodes on her latest fiery duet, “For Me It’s You,” with longtime friend and fellow collaborator Jack Wachtel.
“We wrote it about my friendship and relationship with Jack,” said Schneider, who co-wrote the single with her mother. “It’s about people always having your back and knowing that you have friends to count on and being a friend for other people that they can count on.”
“For Me It’s You” single artwork
The energetic track features soaring electric guitars, vibrant acoustic strums, gigantic cymbal crashes and melodic piano as Schneider reveals, “You were always there, but never mine/Not the right place, not the right time/We have to start crossing that line now/I need you now.”
In response, Wachtel claims, “I’ve always been on the outside looking in/What’s done is in the past/We can make this last, if you wanna.”
Coincidentally, “For Me It’s You,” does look to the past. This heartfelt duet originally appeared as an acoustic version on Schneider’s 2016 debut EP, Insomniac. Nearly four years later, Schneider decided to relaunch it into the pop-punk musical stratosphere with Alex Downtain (lead guitar), Alex Norrell (rhythm guitar), Jeremy Russell (bass), Ari Patwary (bass) and Wachtel.
“That was a song that I really wanted to save, and I wanted to re-release it in a full-band format. I brought it into the studio, and I was like, ‘I want this to have a lot more energy. I want it to be modernized and fixed up a little bit,’ so I invited Jack once again,” she said.
“When we wrote the song, I always had Jack’s voice in mind, and we were in previous band projects together and met in a punk-rock musical called ‘Spring Awakening.’ We’re super happy to bring it back and have it refreshed.”
The Gutter Daisies call out society and the media for an ongoing obsession with public figures experiencing mental illness and depression on “Celebrity Suicide.”
With a raw, honest sound, The Gutter Daisies vigorously confront society’s deep fascination with a celebrity’s personal tragedy.
The Los Angeles pop-punk trio of Doug Rockwell (vocals, guitar), Miles Franco (bass) and Mike Diggs (drums) explodes with frustration about the public’s and the media’s treatment and exploitation of mental illness and depression on their latest single, “Celebrity Suicide.”
“We all grew up dealing with anxiety and depression. I feel like nowadays it’s even more common because of social media. It can be a great platform, but it’s also an extremely vain one that has created a false reality that’s unfortunately become an extension of actuality. It’s a place where everyone sees other people’s ‘best of section’ and then automatically assumes their own lives will never be as glamorous,” Rockwell said.
“Celebrity Suicide” opens with deep-tone, grungy guitars and quickly transforms into a rage-filled power protest as Rockwell angrily sings, “I wanna be like my idols/All fucked up in the brain/I could see it play out/Won’t play my songs while I’m around/Unless my life goes down the drain.”
“The same goes for the media. Paparazzi look for people’s weakest moments so they can sell that to media outlets so they can then bring in ratings. It’s all about making a fortune and not so much about the misfortune. ‘Celebrity Suicide’ is a song about just that with some sarcasm sprinkled on the wound,” Rockwell said.
“Celebrity Suicide” is the first new track The Gutter Daisies have released since covering The Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” in 2018. Their energetic banger of a cover nicely pays tribute to the legendary hip-hop and rap-rock trio’s 1994 classic.
“We were looking for a song to cover that everyone would know no matter who they were, but we didn’t want it to be something you’d hear a run-of-the-mill cover band playing at a local bar,” Rockwell said. “We also wanted it to represent us as a band. ‘Sabotage’ is pretty punk rock, and as soon as it was suggested, we knew we could make it our own without disrupting what the original song had already accomplished.”
The Stratton Setlist 